Yeshiva Academy holds fundraiser to stave off auction

Thursday

Jan 3, 2013 at 7:15 PMJan 3, 2013 at 9:14 PM

By Bronislaus B. Kush TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

A last-minute fundraising drive has been launched to stave off a Friday auction by federal officials of the two-acre Newton Square complex that houses the Yeshiva Achei Tmimim synagogue and the Yeshiva Academy, a Hebrew day school.

Organizers said they have generated about $44,000 from about 170 donors over the past two weeks.

The Yeshiva property was seized late last year by the Internal Revenue Service for non-payment of thousands of dollars in federal payroll taxes dating back to 2004.

The federal agency has been collecting sealed bids and is scheduled to auction off the complex Friday morning.

Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, director of the Yeshiva, said he is trying to negotiate a deal with the IRS, which, at the least, would postpone the auction. The event has already been put off one time.

IRS officials did not respond to emails and telephone calls made over the past two days seeking comment.

The Chabad-affiliated school and synagogue hopes to raise at least $472,000, the minimum bid that the IRS is seeking.

The school has seen its enrollment plummet by at least 40 percent over the past six years. City officials place the enrollment at the kindergarten to Grade 12 school at about 30 students.

Fogelman declined extensive comment Thursday about the Yeshiva's plight but noted that the local Jewish community is rallying to save the complex.

He said the school continues to operate and prayer services are held three times a day.

“We're moving ahead at full throttle,” he said, noting that Yeshiva officials are so confident that the auction will be canceled that they are still working to organize a summer camp for sometime next July. “We're very busy and negotiating (with the IRS).”

Fogelman said the threatened action has not dampened the Yeshiva's commitment to the local Chabad movement.

The Yeshiva has struggled for years to pay its bills and it has many creditors. Officials said the financial picture worsened in 2008 when a faltering stock market discouraged donations.

IRS documents show liens held against the property by the city of Worcester ($8,523), Commercial Bank and Trust Co. ($25,000) and the federal government ($445,706).

The IRS is loath to get involved in seizing the property of religious institutions.

One of the biggest seizures occurred in February of 2001 when federal marshals took the property of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple in Indiana because church officials owed $6 million in back taxes and penalties.

A U.S. District judge ordered the confiscation because of money owed on employee income taxes, Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes.

The seizure of the 22-acre church campus occurred when dozens of agents swarmed the church during a prayer service. The action drew protests for months from individuals and groups who believe that, under the U.S. Constitution, the government has no right to tax religious organizations.

The Yeshiva, which is the only Jewish day school in the city, was founded in the 1940s by Fogelman's father, Rabbi Hershel Fogelman, who is in ill health at the Jewish Healthcare Center.

The elder Fogelman, along with this wife, Rochele, also established several Chabad houses in Framingham, Westboro, Milford, Natick and Sudbury.

Yeshiva officials said donations may be dropped off at the complex, located at 22 Newton Ave., or online at www.savetheyeshiva.com.